Silent Hill HD Collection: March 6.
Silent Hill HD Collection serves as a tribute to the core Silent Hill fans by taking the most famous games of the series, Silent Hill 2 & 3, and re-mastering them in high-definition graphics and adding new voiceovers.

Silent Hill Downpour: March 13.
Silent Hill Downpour follows the story of Murphy Pendleton, a convicted felon, who finds himself trapped in Silent Hill after his prison transport bus crashes. Silent Hill Downpour is the most expansive Silent Hill to date, as players can embark on side missions, explore the town and piece more of the mystery of Silent Hill together.

Silent Hill Book of Memories: March 27
Available exclusively for the brand new PlayStation®Vita handheld device, Book of Memories is an all-new game in the Silent Hill series, with a unique premise and storyline. The story begins with a strange book that is received; inside that book is your entire life story and all of your memories. You discover that by altering what’s written you can actually change the past. You can write your own ideal history. And for the first time ever in a Silent Hill game, it will support multiplayer, so friends can share in the fright in a co-op mode

The Scoop: Fable 3, why do you make it so hard for me to love you? I invest so many hours into you, completing every quest, collecting every legendary weapon, shooting every trash-talking gnome, and you thank me with bugs that consistently hamper my experience.

Now, previous Fable games were no strangers to bugs, but Fable 3 has pushed my tolerance level to the brink. For instance, the inclusion of John Cleese (of Monty Python fame) voicing your butler in the game has gained considerable hype because, well, it’s John Cleese. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to enjoy Mr. Praline’s witty charm, as a game bug rendered his character mute throughout the duration of my playthrough. Then there’s the fast-travel glitch, which crippled the ability to jump from one region to the other, forcing my character to journey by foot across the rather large maps to get in-between regions, and completely restricting one region that was only accessible through fast-travel. How these bugs got passed testing is beyond me. This has devolved into a bit of a rant, so allow me to get to the actual reviewing of the game, where I will attempt to transfer my rage towards bugs in a more professional manner.

The Setup: In Fable 3, you play the son (or daughter) of the Hero you played in Fable 2. Your older brother, Logan, is the king of Albion and is, well, a bit of an ass. Rumors about his iron-fisted rule reach your ears, so you and your mentor, Sir Walter Beck (brilliantly voiced by Bernard Hill, King Theoden from Lord of the Rings) decide to confront him. Of course, Logan is none to pleased about dissent regarding the way he runs things, so he forces you to make a decision that leaves your prince (or princess) angered regardless of the choice you make. This pushes you to escape the castle with Walter and your butler Jasper (John Cleese, who was still able to talk at this point in the game) and to lead a rebellion against your tyrannical brother. But if you’re going to overthrow a king, you’re going to need some followers.

What’s Hot: Fable 3 starts with an opening cinematic that is both beautiful and hilarious and sets the tone of the game perfectly. It also helps reinforce the theme of rebellion, as the chicken (Lionhead has a cruel fascination with poultry) starring  in the cinematic rejects a life meant for the chopping block and attempts a daring escape to freedom. Spoiler: the chicken doesn’t make it.

Tones and themes aren’t the only things the cinematic establishes. As the chicken scrambles through the streets of Bowerstone, you’ll notice a vastly changed Albion. Fable 3 is set 50 years after Fable 2, which means technology has taken a significant step forward, making the world of Albion look a lot more steampunk-y than usual. This aesthetic re-vamp helps make Albion feel new for veteran Fable players while still carrying an air of familiarity.

I felt the storytelling aspects in Fable 3 were a significant improvement from Fable 2. This is mostly due thanks to the story itself being much better than Fable 2′s. The story in Fable 2 wasn’t the gripping epic-drama Lionhead grandmaster Peter Molyneux made it out to be, but he’s succeeded the third go around. It’s a story of riches to rags to riches that the player will want to see through to the end.

You can also tell Lionhead has put a lot more thought into executing the story with cinematic gusto. Important moments in the game have been carefully orchestrated with sweeping camera angles and top-notch voice-acting that helps sell the epicness the story is going for.

The world of Albion is a gorgeous one. Each region is unique and packed with detail, tempting you to explore every nook and cranny. It also helps that the art-style is sublime. Oh, and female characters actually look female this time around (if you’ve played Fable 2 you’ll know what I mean).

The new Touch mechanic is a moderate success. By squeezing the left trigger, your character will grab the hand of any NPC that’s nearest to them. This opens up some new gameplay twists that, while not groundbreaking, compliment the more sim-like elements nicely. For example, if I were to woe Sally the Hairstylist into marrying my character, I might have to take her on a date first. This is accomplished simply by taking her hand and leading her to her favorite place in Albion. Overall, the Touch mechanic really helps connect the player to some of the NPCs, and is particularly heartwarming when interacting with your own son or daughter in-game.

Combat hasn’t really changed much since Fable 2 — the X, Y, and B buttons still control melee, ranged, and magic attacks — but that’s not to say Lionhead hasn’t made some tweaks to the formula. Changing between attack styles is a lot more seamless than it was in Fable 2, which makes combat feel fluid and faster-paced. The level of brutality in combat has also seen some tweaks, with each swing of your sword or shot from your pistol randomly producing a slick kill animation that never fails to satisfy. Another new wrinkle to the combat is the ability to weave two spells together. Although in some regards this just feels like an artificial way of bumping up the number of spells at your disposal, it’s still fun to experiment with the different combinations.

The number of optional quests in Fable 3 is impressive, especially when you take into consideration how high-quality each of them are. Seriously, some truly are gems. Particularly the one where your character is shrunken down by three so-called “sorcerers”, who parody various role-playing conventions as you adventure around in a miniature world of their creation.

Fable 3′s single greatest innovation, though, has to be the Sanctuary. You see, Fable 2′s 2D interface was atrocious. Slow, clunky, teetering on the edge of broken, players knew this, and so did Lionhead. They’ve remedied this by completely doing away with menus in favor of something more tangible. The Sanctuary is basically a 3D space where players can access their clothes, weapons, gold, and online functionalities. So, if you wanted to equip your character with a brand new pair of trousers, you’d press the start button, get transported to the Sanctuary, go to your Wardrobe, walk up to the trousers on display, press the a button, and voilà. Now, I know this sounds like a lot more laborious process than scrolling through a 2D menu, and it probably is, but it’s still a vast improvement over Fable 2‘s interface.

Cooperative play has also seen some significant innovations. Players are no longer tethered to each other, meaning they can go off anywhere and do anything they want, with the only trade-off being they must stay in the same region. The option to marry your co-op partner is a welcome one, as having an NPC as a spouse can be a lifeless affair. Aside from all that, co-op is exactly what you’d expect it to be. You do the same things you would do if playing alone, but with a buddy.

What’s Not: The damn bugs that I mentioned earlier. There’s too many of them. And they are way too severe. I’ve already mentioned the silent Jasper and fast-travel glitch earlier, now let me set up a different scenario: I’ve just accepted a quest given to me by a male NPC. He tells me that his wife has become a total witch and that he doesn’t want to divorce her as that would mean having to give her half of what he owns. His solution for this is to have me make her fall in love with me so that he wouldn’t have to deal with the repercussions of a divorce. Sounds simple, right? Unfortunately, when I went to go woe my target, some diabolical bug made it so that I was unable to interact with her. To this day, that mission remains incomplete. Then there are the littler things like being unable to move my family into another house, having the icon to quickly teleport between rooms in the Sanctuary disappear, the breadcrumb trail randomly freaking out and not telling me where I need to go, severe drops in the framerate just by walking. I’m sure Lionhead will release patches to rectify these, but as it stands, Fable 3 suffers from an infestation problem.

The latter-half of the game is disappointing to say the least. After overthrowing Logan, you become the ruler of Albion. As ruler, you must attend to certain obligations. For instance, all of those promises you made to people prior to your inauguration must be dealt with. It’s only fair, seeing as they helped you acquire the crown in the first place. While sitting comfortably on your throne, you’ll listen to why the promise should be kept by the person it was made to and why it shouldn’t by none other than Reaver (Fable 2 players will know who this is). After hearing both reasons, you must make a decision. This mechanic could’ve lead to some serious moral quarrels, but it all falls flat when you realize the foundation these decisions rest is based on how much gold you have. Gold is really easy to come by in Fable 3, so having so much of it lifts any weight these decisions carry.

Once you’re done making all these hollow choices, you’re thrown into what Lionhead considers a “finale”. It’s basically a retread of every other encounter you’ve had in the game, punctuated with a boss fight that I managed to overcome by spamming the b button. Sound climactic to you?

Final Verdict: I would’ve given Fable 3 a solid four stars if it wasn’t for all those damn bugs, but even then I still wouldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. Despite the improvements over it’s predecessor, Fable 3 still manages to be worse due to the inconsistencies in it’s design. None of the new mechanics feel fully fleshed out, giving the impression that a few extra months of development would’ve benefited greatly. That said, Fable 3 is still a worthwhile entry in the franchise that everyone who plays will be charmed, and frustrated, by.

The Scoop: Jumping high over the crumbling buildings of Pacific City, I take aim at the numerous Cell soldiers dotting the rooftop. They notice the aerial threat and open fire. Thousands of bullets whistle past or ping off of my armor. I retaliate with a shot from my Rocket Launcher. The rocket collides with a stack of explosive barrels. The resulting blast sends Cell soldiers careening through the air in a glorious blaze. I land weightily on the now vacant rooftop. On the adjacent building, a heavily armored Cell soldier laboriously adjusts his aim on a turret and unleashes a stream of firepower. I holster my weapon and dash forward, air rushing past either side of me. The turret’s heavy shells begin eating away at my shields. I jump into the air once more. While airborne, I adjust myself downward and am soon descending on my enemy at an increasing velocity, my fist pulsing red with power. The impact rocks the building and the Cell soldier crumples to the ground. I scoop his broken body up and toss him off the building. Once he hits the bottom, I lob a Cluster Grenade down to his corpse, causing a massive explosion that decimates anything and anyone in its radius. What’s left is a number of scorched bodies and vehicles strewn across the street below.

Just another day in the familiar world of Crackdown 2.

The Setup: Crackdown 2 is set 10 years after the events that took place in it’s predecessor and things aren’t looking so hot. A virus has spread amongst the citizens of Pacific City and has mutated them into mindless freaks that stalk the streets by night. To make matters worse, a terrorist organization known as the Cell have been putting a damper on the Agency’s attempts to clean up the infestation. As a newly recruited Agent, it’s your job to deploy “Project Sunburst,” a last ditch effort to rid Pacific City of the freaks once and for all.

What’s Hot: Although it would’ve been easier for me to just copy and paste all the pros and cons from my review of the original Crackdown onto this review, as I’m a (not really) professional journalist, doing so would’ve been unethical. Instead, I’ll try to do my best in making sure my readers aren’t struck by an overwhelming sense of déjà vu while reading this article as much as I was while playing Ruffian Games first effort.

You still got your five skills in Crackdown 2 and it’s still very addicting leveling each one up. Agility, firearms, strength, explosives, and vehicles can be upgraded by collecting orbs that correspond with each skill. For example, killing a bad guy with melee attacks will award Strength Orbs, while alternatively running a bad guy over with a car will award Vehicle Orbs. Combining all the skills together is a lot of fun; plowing through a group of baddies with a truck, then hopping out of it to lob a grenade while spraying aimlessly with your Machine Gun is immensely satisfying, especially seeing your agent soak up all the different kinds of orbs after the chaos ends.

Then there are the Agility Orbs. Yup, the proverbial “crack” of Crackdown returns, and so does the subtle “ping” that emanates whenever you touch one. Just thinking about those little green bastards pulsing in the distance gives me the sweats. Not so much the second time around, but still pretty bad.

With each new level achieved through one of the skills, the player is awarded a new ability or toy to fool around with. These unlockables range from new weapons and vehicles to suit enhancements that provide some nice wrinkles to the gameplay. I especially liked the Wingsuit (awarded once your reach level 5 Agility), which provides a fun way to explore Pacific City.

Co-op also makes a triumphant return, but now the number has been bumped up to four. Having two players running around wreaking havoc in the same city in Crackdown was enormous fun, and that fun has transitioned unscathed in the sequel. Playing with three other pals generates some truly great moments and I feel this is the most significant part of the game.

The final good addition to Crackdown 2 is the new Freak mechanic. The game runs on a day/night cycle, which dictates what kind of enemies you will face. During the day, you will primarily deal with Cell soldiers, but when the sun goes down, the Freaks emerge from the underground. These zombie knockoffs appear on the streets by the thousands, and are a lot of fun to mow down while driving an Agency Supercar.

What’s Not: Remember how repetitive it became killing all 21 bosses in the original Crackdown? Well if you wanted something even more repetitive, Crackdown 2′s got you covered. Instead of having to kill 21 bosses, now you have to activate 27 absorption units just by standing on them! Fun! Not. After you activate a certain amount of the units, a beacon is deployed beneath the surface of Pacific City. You have to defend this beacon as hundreds of Freaks descend upon you while it charges up to unleash a blast of light which will incinerate all the Freaks in that area. This is an amusing little minigame the first few times, but then it just become a chore as the Freaks attack in the exact same way all the time. I was really hoping Ruffian Games would fix the repetitious structure found in Crackdown, but instead they managed to make it worse in the sequel. Although having three other players alleviates some of the dullness of repeating the same task, It’s still not enough to hide the extreme laziness that permeates the design.

Another thing Ruffian managed to make worse is the verticality elements in the game. In similar fashion to the original Crackdown, Crackdown 2 allows you to climb up any building by grabbing hold of ledges. Despite feeling a little stiff, it worked well enough in the original, but because of Crackdown 2′s more muted color palette, it makes it much harder to discern what your Agent is able to grab hold of, which leads to a lot of blind leaps that end with you falling to the ground.

Ruffian also felt the need to staple on a lackluster competitive multiplayer component that really isn’t worth bothering with unless you absolutely must see everything the game has to offer. There’s your standard Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, but also a mode called Rocket Tag which is a free-for-all mode where everyone is equipped with Rocket Launchers and most hold onto a golden orb. The longer you hold onto the orb, the more points you score, but holding onto it automatically alerts other players to your location, which means you need to constantly be on the move, lest you want to eat a hail of rockets. Although there is a some novelty to the mode, it’s much too chaotic and probably won’t hold your interest for more than three or four matches.

Final Verdict: If you loved Crackdown, Than it’s guaranteed you’ll manage to squeeze some enjoyment out of Crackdown 2. With that said, it’s extremely disappointing Ruffian Games didn’t do more given all the potential the original game demonstrated. Oh well. Crackdown 3 anyone?

The Scoop: Ah, Remedy. The famed creator of the fantastic Max Payne are finally back in the GOTY arena, and boy, do they have a strong contender for you bloodthirsty gamers.  Announced back in 2005, Alan Wake has been sleeping in development limbo for a whopping 5 years, and it was damn well time to wake the bastard up and bring him into the light. I guess the extended beauty sleep did him good, though. Alan Wake is an absolute gem that every 360 owner should have in their library.

The Setup: Famed writer Alan Wake has woken up and entered a nightmare. His wife has gone missing, possessed townsfolk are trying to chop him up into pieces, and a manuscript he doesn’t even remember writing seems to be predicting all these events as they happen. Weird, huh? Prior to all this craziness, Alan was a simple man who wore a tweed jacket and was suffering from a little case of writer’s block. This led to his wife, Alice, suggesting they take a vacation to the quaint town of Bright Falls, which turns out to be the worst decision ever made. That’s as much plot as I’m going to reveal, but suffice to say Alan Wake sets up the stage incredibly and soon you’ll find yourself caught up in a whirlwind of plot-twists and cliffhangers that will leave you breathless and wanting to continue playing. Yeah, it’s that good.

What’s Hot: I’m a firm believer in compelling narratives for videogames. It’s like driving a car through a beautiful landscape. Sure, you can ignore the scenery altogether and focus on driving, but sometimes it’s nice to stop and get sucked in by the world around you. Of course, this is all useless if the car is a broken-down piece of crap, but you get the idea. Alan Wake has it’s narrative crafted in spades. Presented in a television show-like  manner, with episodes and “previously on” segments that kick each one off, Alan Wake’s story has been expertly stringed together to provide a sense of immersion that doesn’t break until the credits roll. It also helps that the writing is excellent and that the characters are all compelling enough for you to genuinely care about their fates.

But like I said, this is all useless if the gameplay that drives through the narrative is crap. Luckily, Remedy knows how to make a solid action game just as much as they know how to tell an amazing story. The basic components for Alan Wake’s gameplay are simple, with a  mixture  of gunplay, exploration, and some driving portions. Shooting in Alan Wake is fluid and never feels cumbersome, even in the most intense situations. Exploration, although minimal, is fun mostly due in part to the highly-detailed forest environments that you’ll want to explore every nook and cranny of.  The driving portions of the game, while not as exciting as the on-foot action, is easy to control and avoids feeling forced since they’re served sparingly.

Now, you guys must be asking “well that’s nice and all, but what’s the catch?” Well, the catch is that all these solid gameplay elements are flavoured with a unique light and dark mechanic Remedy has implemented into the game. You see, the world around Alan has been flooded with a dark presence that possesses whatever it touches. In order to battle this darkness, Alan must use light. Flashlights, flash-bangs, flares — all these items must be utilised in order to effectively combat the enemies that assault Alan on his journey. For example, If a Taken (the name of the enemies) jumps out of the trees, you must first “burn” away the darkness that surrounds them. Only once these black flames are totally extinguished will you be able to damage the enemy with Alan’s firearm at hand. This one-two punch style of combat is extremely satisfying and manages to stay that way throughout the 12 hour-long campaign.

Another thing I thought was really cool in the game was the whole element of collecting Alan’s scattered manuscript pages. These little sheets of gleaming white paper can be discovered lying around the environment, some being more well-hidden then others. Each sheet contains it’s own little excerpt from Alan’s forgotten project, which foreshadows events to come. So, if you come across a page that says Alan is going to be attacked by a demonic bulldozer, you better be damn well ready for some construction vehicle combat!

On a technical level, Alan Wake manages to be on par with some of the graphical beasts that have been released lately. The lighting is unparalleled, environments are packed with little details, and the animations are fluid. The daytime levels make more noticeable some of the low-res textures and pop-in, but they’re minor and don’t detract much from the overall package. Remedy has created an atmosphere that must be experienced.

What’s Not: There’s only one thing that robs Alan Wake of a perfect score: the ending. The games narrative takes you on one hell of a roller-coaster ride, so it’s extremely disappointing that the final moments of the game don’t match the quality of the previous episodes. I usually don’t complain about cliffhangers, but Alan Wake’s was just way too anticlimactic and unsatisfying. I hear some DLC is going to be released to tie up the loose ends, but I’m reviewing the content that comes on the disk, and what’s here, while brilliant overall, comes just short of reaching something truly masterful.

Final Verdict: Intense action, brilliant atmosphere, and a superbly told story elevate Alan Wake onto the top of my “Games that took a long ass time to make but were totally worth it” list. Sure, the ending sucked, but that fault is almost eclipsed by everything the game succeeds at. It’s something that should truly be experienced and is the reason why Remedy is so respected in this medium. To all the 360 owners in the world: buy this game.

Publisher: THQ
Developer: 4A Games
Platform(s): Xbox 360, PC
Genre: Survival-Horror, First-Person Shooter
Rating: Mature
ESRB Content Descriptors: Blood, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Use of Drugs, Violence

The Scoop: Metro 2033 flew under your radar. Don’t lie. Everyone who I’ve talked to about the game had no idea of it’s existence, so I think it’s safe to assume you didn’t know either (my assumptions are usually correct!). Having originally been conceived as a novel by author Dmitri Glukhovsky, 4A Games, a young developer founded by some of the people who coded S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, decided it was great source material to make a videogame with. Boy, were they right! Sleeper hit of the year? Definitely.

The Setup: As the title suggests, Metro 2033 is set in the year 2033 in post-apocalyptic Moscow. When the nukes dropped, people rushed down into the famous Moscow Metro for protection. Now, the above-ground world is ravaged by a toxic atmosphere and an eternal nuclear winter, forcing the survivors to create  a new home underground. You play as Artyom, a young man who was raised most of his life in the metro system. After the attacks by mutated monsters on your home station known as ‘Exhibition’ increase, you are tasked with traveling to a neighboring station called ‘Polis’ to get assistance from it’s soldiers. But this will not be an easy task, and it is only made harder by the numerous fascist and communist camps that litter the tunnels, not to mention ’The Dark Ones’, abnormal beings that keep harassing you in the form of increasingly eerie visions. Of course, events become on a much larger scale later in the game’s story, but I’ll leave that up to you to find out.

What’s Hot:

• Metro 2033 boasts a fantastic atmosphere that you’ll lose yourself to with every playthrough. Each station in the game has been lovingly crafted to give the player a sense of desperation that compliments the story beautifully.
• Metro 2033 is one of the best looking games on the 360. Despite some minor clipping, the amount of detail in the environments is astonishing and the lighting realistic. 4A Games have created a wonderful engine and I can’t wait to see what they do with it in their future projects.
• An expert blend of survival-horror and first-person shooting. The scares are genuine and the action is intense.
• It’s easy to understand why Glukhovsky’s novel is such a hit in Russia. A deep and emotional narrative guides the player through each chapter and never loses steam. The alternative ending is also a nice touch, giving the player an incentive to replay the game all over again

What’s Not:

• Metro 2033 is hard. Very hard. Even on the easiest difficulty level, the game can be tear-out-your-hair-throw-the-controller-at-the-television-kick-your-cat frustrating, especially on the last couple of levels. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
• The shooting in Metro 2033 feels too loose and unrefined, which some players will find jarring, especially if they’re Call of Duty vets.
• There are times in Metro 2033 where I’d unload a whole clip into a guy and the engine just wouldn’t process the impact. This can lead to some very frustrating firefights.

Final Verdict: I loved Metro 2033. Despite it’s insane difficulty and  finicky controls, I kept on playing because of it’s engrossing narrative and atmosphere. The fun gameplay is just a bonus, really. When that novel launches in North America, you can expect I’ll be there buying it day-one. As for you guys? I implore you to give this game a try.

 Halo Friggin Reach Multiplayer Trailer

Did you see the jetpacks! That beta can’t come soon enough!

Publisher: Sega
Developer: High Voltage Software
Platform(s): Wii
Genre: First-Person Shooter

Rating: Teen
ESRB Content Descriptors: Blood, Mild Language, Violence

The Scoop: Hardcore. That’s been a scary word for the Wii. Taboo almost. People who own the little console, myself included, mostly take it out only when we have to entertain family or friends. That’s a sad prospect, especially since I know Nintendo is capable of so much more when it comes to their hardcore audience. Enter The Conduit.Developed by High Voltage Software and touted to be the definitive FPS for the Wii, The Conduit had garnered much media coverage since it was first announced back in 2008 and a lot of hype followed. Pretty graphics? Check. Online multiplayer? Yup. Exclusive to the Wii console? For sure. But does all of this come together to make a truly great experience? Read on and I’ll tell you…

The Setup: The story in The Conduit follows a secret services agent named Michael Ford. He has been assigned by a government organization known as The Trust to eliminate a terrorist that goes by the alias Prometheus. Typically, something bad occurs during the mission and Mr. Ford is thrust into an alien consipiracy that could very well mean the end of human life.

What’s Hot:

• Graphics: This area has always been the Wii’s pet peeves, but I’m happy to report that HVS has managed to squeeze a considerable amount of graphical fidelity from Nintendo’s console. Impressive particle effects and lighting contribute to an overall sense of polish that’s not seen in most Wii games.
• Online Multiplayer: Fun, frenetic action and a bevy of unique gameplay modes and weapons add depth to a multiplayer offering that kept drawing me back in to play some more.
• Customization: The Conduit boasts the most customizable controls ever in an FPS game. Everything, from the button input to the HUD layout, can be altered in some way, allowing every gamer to find their own comfort zone. Even more astonishing is how perfect I found the default controls to be.
• Old School: The Conduit is stuck in the past, but in a good way. If you enjoyed classics like Perfect Dark or Goldeneye, then you’ll appreciate what’s on offer here. The gameplay’s homage to the corridor shooter is structured well and the game itself can be quite tough.

What’s Not:

• Art Style: Despite immpressive graphics, The Conduit suffers from a bland art design that bogs down the overall look of the game.
• Presentation: An already generic plot is worsened by the horrible manner it’s presented in: Text and some awful VO. That’s right. No cinematics here.
• All Seeing Eye: The only gameplay element that made me cringe. You see, there are some moments during the singleplayer campaign where Mr. Ford will have to pull this round sucker out and use it to disarm invisible mines, unlock hidded weapon caches, and solve some light puzzles in the environment. It consistently breaks up the action, though, and just isn’t all that fun to use.

Final Verdict: So is The Conduit the Wii’s best pure FPS? Absolutely. But we must also bare in mind that it’s the only pure FPS on the Wii. Overall, though, I fully recommend The Conduit to any gamer who has an itchy trigger finger.

Publisher:

Rating: Teen
ESRB Content Descriptors: Blood, Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Violence

The Scoop: Released back in 2008 to lukewarm reviews, Too Human, Silicon Knights’ long overdue baby, was deemed a failure because of an overall lack of interest from the consumer. Hyped up by game director, Dennis Dyack, as an action-rpg hybrid with an intuitive control scheme and camera, expectations rose to an unachievable level and when the title launched, well, lets just say Microsoft didn’t make the 80 million dollars that they put into the development of the game back. But this is my review. I don’t care about sales or critics. What matters is my own opinion and I think Dennis Dyack and company made a damn fine product that’s marred only somewhat by poor design choices.

The Setup: Too Human’s story is rooted in Norse mythology, a rich prehistory that boasts a variety of powerful gods and fantastical creatures. You take on the role of Baldur, one of the aforementioned gods who has been charged with defending mankind from an onslaught of machines who wish to eradicate all human life.

What’s Hot:

• Original Setting: The thing that I thought was really cool about Too Human wasn’t the mythos that it takes inspiration from, but the sci-fi spin it puts on it. Everything, from the characters to the environments, is flavoured with a technological design, while still managing to stay true to the source material.
• Intuitive Control Scheme: Unlike most action games, Baldur’s attacks are controlled by the analog stick rather than being mapped to the face buttons. Holding the analog stick in the direction of an enemy will allow Baldur to slide across the terrain and smite his foe directly. Alternatively, you can squeeze the triggers to have Baldur pull out his firearm(s) and lay waste to goblins from a safer distance. The controls are easy to pick up and surprisingly rewarding.
• Loot Whores Dream: Too Human is brimming with loot. You will not come out of a level without having garnered at least 100 different types of weapons and armor.
• Audio: The tight gameplay is complimented by a sweeping orchestral score that always got me pumped before a battle. Voice-acting is solid throughout. 

What’s Not: 

• Story: Although the setting is aching to tell an engaging tale, what Silicon Knight’s has given us is disjointed and utterly forgettable. And don’t even get me started on the game’s “cliffhanger”.
• Graphics: While not terrible, Too Human fails to impress with ugly animations and some framerate issues.
• Longevity: There are only four levels in Too Human. Four. That number is insulting, especially for an rpg. Hell, even for an action game that’s unacceptable.
• Co-op: This could have been the definitive feature in Too Human. Unfortunately, Co-op ends up just feeling like a watered down version of the single player campaign. Why didn’t Silicon Knights allow 4 player co-op rather than just 2?
• Unintuitive Camera: With a third-person action game, it’s expected by players to have full control over the in-game camera. That’s not the case with Too Human. Silicon Knight’s decided to be all fancy and incorporated a system which allows the camera to work independently. For the most part, it doesn’t work.

Final Verdict: Too Human is a great game that could have been a masterpiece if it weren’t for the lacklustre story and some botched gameplay decisions. Despite that, I still play the damn game, even 2 years after it’s release. It always manages to draw me back in with it’s deep customization and addictive combat. A sequel can easily rectify all the problems I’ve had with it, but until then, I’ll continue to enjoy Too Human.          

• Alan Wake/April 13th- After a prolonged development time, Remedy is finally ready to release their newest IP. With interesting light and dark gameplay mechanics and some awesome tech, let’s hope a delay doesn’t rear it’s ugly head.
• Bioshock 2/February 9th - 2k Marin’s sequel to the critically acclaimed Bioshock lets you return to Rapture as a Big Daddy, ’nuff said.  
• Crackdown 2/May 1st -  Being a huge fan of the original Crackdown, I almost crapped my pants when the sequel was announced at E3, though this time being helmed by Ruffian Games rather than Realtime Worlds. 
• Epic Mickey/September 16th - A platformer with RPG elements and a morality system, Epic Mickey looks to correct the current image the mouse has by reintroducing his mischievous personality from yesteryear.  
• Fable 3/November 1st - Peter Molyneux’s next revolutionary RPG set in the Fable universe promises Natal support, which has caught my full attention. 
• The Grinder/TBA – High Voltage Software’s crack at a Left 4 Dead clone that has been recently announced to have gone multiplatform. Naughty, naughty HVS. 
• Halo: Reach/Q4 2010 - It’s Halo. It’s Halo. It’s Halo. It’s Halo. Did I mention it’s Halo? Set as the prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo: Reach looks to truely launch the series into next-gen with a vastly improved engine. 
• Red Steel 2/March 23rd - Despite mediocre reviews for the original, Red Steel 2 seems to have been improved in every conceivable way. It also fully supports Wii motion plus, which helps.

My 2010 is looking to be just as exciting as 2009. And 2008. Please, leave comments below telling me what you can’t wait for this year.

The demo for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has been released! After an hour of waiting for the sucker to download (I was playing Mass Effect 2 for the duration, so it was time well wasted) I finally got that satisfying bleep and ”download complete” pop-up and jumped right into the action. The demo is purely multiplayer and featured one of the snow-capped maps called Port Valdez and a game mode called Rush, which players who played the previous game will be familiar with.   

Bad Company 2 runs on the ever so awesome Frostbite Engine, created in-house by DICE, which means pretty much everything in the map was destructible. Things start off with your load-out selection (standard assault, medic, recon, and engineer) and then parachuting down onto the battlefield. I was disoriented by how cumbersome your character moves on the ground, but got used to it as soon as the bullets started flying. Another thing that was a little jarring at first was the control scheme. Those of us have played a lot of Modern Warfare 2 will encounter a slight learning curve, with certain actions mapped in odd places. But aside from some control issues, my time playing the Battlefield demo was exceptional. The audio design was brilliant, having every gun sound just as powerful as it felt, the graphics were crisp, boasting excellent amount of detail and destructibility, courtesy of Frostbite, and the refined version of the first Bad Company’s popular multiplayer mode ‘Gold Rush’ is just as addictive the second time around.

The Bad Company 2 demo has made the wait for it’s official launch painful…